INDIANAPOLIS — From the outside, it was a line or two on social media, a thankful near-miss in what could have been a tragedy. There were reports of bumps and a few bruises but nothing more serious when the plane carrying Michigan’s basketball team slid off the runway.

John Beilein is quick to correct that characterization.

“It wasn’t just a plane skidding off a runway,” the Wolverines coach said Thursday. “It was full going, 150 miles an hour, we can’t stop. And our kids got — thank goodness the plane didn’t flip. All kinds of things could have happened once we got off the plane and looked.”

No one knows how the events of nine days ago affected what came next for Michigan, how such a harrowing experience played with the hearts and minds of players on a team that as senior swingman Zak Irvin says, has “been on quite a wave over the past week.”

Since the incident senior point guard Derrick Walton Jr. described as “one of those memories that will stay with me for the rest of my life,” the Wolverines are unbeaten. They won four games in four days in Washington last week to capture their first Big Ten Conference Tournament championship in 19 years, the lowest seed (No. 8) ever to win it all. This surge of unexpected momentum makes Michigan (24-11) a trendy pick to do some damage in the NCAA Tournament.

For those who lived through it, though, it was life-changing. There were players, cheerleaders, band members and families of the coaching staff on the flight, and all had to escape down the emergency slides. Beilein guided passengers off the plane with jet fuel covering parts of his face, and admitted in the days that followed his mind drifted to airline tragedies that befell college programs at Evansville and Marshall.

“I tried not to think what could have happened, particularly if the plane would have got up in the air,” Beilein said. “I don’t think it makes it. If it gets up a little bit, now we’ve got a whole different deal. Thank goodness the pilot put on the brakes. We’re just blessed.”

In a kind of twisted irony, the Wolverines’ first-round opponents are no strangers to air tragedy. Sixteen years ago, in January 2001, two Oklahoma State basketball players and eight staff members were killed when the plane they were flying in crashed in Colorado.

The team was led then by legendary coach Eddie Sutton, who took OSU to the Final Four in 1995 and 2004.

“I’ve known Eddie Sutton for a long time,” Beilein said. “I really thought about that, how a coach goes through that.”

Establishment Michigan rarely plays the role of destiny’s darling, but these Wolverines are riding along that unfamiliar road.

Michigan’s Derrick Walton Jr. and coach John BeileinGetty Images

“Rightfully so,” Oklahoma State’s senior guard Phil Forte said. “The circumstances they had to go through, they handled it very well and kind of made it a national story.”

After back-to-back losses to Michigan State and Ohio State, the Wolverines were 14-9 and seemingly headed for a nice seed in the NIT. The turnaround was not triggered when that Ameristar Charter plane slid off runway 23L. A three-game winning streak in early February produced victories over Michigan State, Indiana and ranked Wisconsin. Rough losses at Minnesota in overtime and in Evanston to Northwestern on a devastating last-second Hail Mary were sandwiched around an eye-opening 12-point beating of Big Ten leader Purdue.

Still, Michigan was no one’s choice to rampage through the four days in Washington.

As it turned out, getting there was the hardest part.

“We’re already a close-knit group,” said Irvin, who is second all-time in games played at Michigan with 139. “If possible, that brought us closer, especially going through something like that. The hardest part for us was getting back on the plane.”